


You're Worth It

by PagetPaulson



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-20
Updated: 2015-09-01
Packaged: 2018-02-09 15:36:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 13,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1988346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PagetPaulson/pseuds/PagetPaulson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teenage Aaron Hotchner tries his best to get to know the Prentiss girl who has everyone mystified. Warning: Mentions of self harm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Derek grappled with the coffee cup he had gotten from the closest store that morning, cursing at the feeling of the scalding coffee sloshing over the sides and onto his hands. "Shit!"

The older boy in the car quickly got his friend a napkin from the second cup holder. "It's fine, man," he laughed, putting his hands back on the wheels.

"You got napkins in your car?" the darker teen questioned. "What are you, a girl?"

Aaron laughed at the sound in his friend's voice, slowing the car as he turned a corner. "I have them here for you, Derek. Every time you get in my car, something spills."

"Shut up, man!"

Stopping at the next sign they came to, the eldest of the two leaned back in his seat, his neck craning to look out the window.

"Oh," Derek laughed, sipping his coffee as carefully as he could. "This is why we came the long way."

"What are you talking about?"

Derek rolled his eyes at the older boy, looking out the window to where the other football player's eyes were directed. "Every other day you drive past the Prentiss house and just stare at the girl. When are you going to ask her out?"

Aaron just stared out his side window, watching the fifteen year old girl running through the massive front yard to get away from her siblings. The Prentiss girls, the five prettiest and most isolated girls in all of Roanake County, barely ever ventured out of their home except for school and the occasional sneak out of their parents monolithic mansion to escape the family's tension.

Emily was the middle child.

Adrianna was seventeen, Camille was sixteen, Emily was fifteen, Jordan was fourteen and the youngest was little Kylie, just thirteen years old.

Adrianna was the artsy one, always painting pictures and taking them of her sisters when they were in the right mood, and Camille wanted to follow in her uncle Jim's footsteps to become a lawyer.

The fourteen year old had always known she wanted to be a chef, but like Adrianna, Jordan didn't dare tell her ambassador parents about her aspirations. If she wasn't going into politics then they didn't want to hear it.

And little Kylie was the best at speaking in front of others, and she wanted to be a teacher.

Emily? She wasn't sure of anything in her life.

"Man, pay attention. We've gotta get to school!"

The football player watched as the fifteen year old's head spun at the angry words of her mother, and she along with her other sisters trudged over to the limo so they could be taken to school. "Yeah ok."

Derek grinned at the older teen's sullen look as they drove past the mansion. "Dude you're so whipped."

"Shut up."

"You know she tried to kill herself like three times," the darker boy told him seriously.

Aaron's head nodded jerkily at the statement, glancing into the rearview mirror to see the stretch limo pulling out through the mansion's entrance gates. "I know, all the girls did."

"Something's seriously wrong with that house, man."

Aaron pulled the car into the school's north parking lot and yanked the keys out of the ignition, throwing them into his backpack as he jumped out of the driver's seat. "They're good girls though, you know that. They're all on the dean's list over at Allen Prep."

Derek blinked, handing the coffee over to his friend when he saw his eyes grow serious. "I know you like her man, but none of those girls have friends. It's like against their religion or something."

A blond jumped up from her spot at the public school's fountain and immediately walked in stride with the two boys. "I'm pretty sure there's no religion where you're not allowed to have friends."

"Shut up JJ."

"Jeez," the sixteen year old complained. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Aaron smiled at the pair, leading them up the stairs into the school. "When is Derek not in a bad mood?"

"Shut up, man!"

"So did you go by the Prentiss house today?"

Aaron glared at the laughing boy at his side and punched him straight in his left peck. "Fuck you, bro. You fucking told JJ?"

"Relax," Derek commended, putting his hands up to shield himself from any more hits. "Everyone knows you like her, so who cares?"

The blond smiled up to her friend. "So are you gonna ask her out? Our prom is in like three months."

"I don't know," he sighed.

"I bet she'd say yes," JJ laughed, following her friends up the stairs to the second floor. "Emily Prentiss is the most shy, definitely. But she's super pretty and seems like the nicest."

Aaron nodded, walking into his United States history class just behind both of his friends. "I spoke to her once when I had the paper route three years ago. She was outside when I was putting the newspaper into their mailbox and asked if I went to her school. When I said no she looked kind of upset and then just went back to her book."

"Just ask her out."

Derek sat himself down in one of the back desks. "If you don't then I will."

"No you wouldn't," the other boy dismissed.

After giving a small pause, the darker teen shook his head. "You're right, I wouldn't. But you should."

Aaron sank back in his desk as their teacher started the class, his mind wandering to the beautiful brunette girl who was only two years younger than he. The entire town knew who the Prentiss' were, but because the parents were so strict, no one knew who the girls really were. He was the one who wanted to find out, and he was the one who wanted to break that beautiful girl out of her shell.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm gonna get to bed," the brunette teen shrugged, standing from her spot at the table where she had been doing a puzzle with her father.

Elizabeth Prentiss refrained from rolling her eyes, something only those of a lower class did, and kept her fingers on the next piece of the puzzle. "I'm going to bed," she corrected her daughter.

"Shove it up your ass," the teenager nodded in the same monotone voice of her mother, throwing her hands up into the air and walking from the room. The fifteen year old went straight from the dining room through all the right halls to get to the library and walk out the quietest backdoor, slamming it as she went. She never hid the fact that she would do the exact opposite of what was asked of her, and pissing off her mother was always the highlight of her day.

Emily giggled as she ran around the pool and crawled underneath the biggest hedge, lying on her back beside her older sister and smiling. "Smoke break, huh?"

"You shouldn't be here," the eldest girl smirked. "Second hand smoke is worse than having the actual cigarette, babe. Could kill ya'."

"That's the plan," Emily whispered. She and her sister always had the same talk when they would lay together under the branches and look up through the leaves so they could see the stars, but nothing would ever change.

Adrianna blew a ring of smoke over her sister's face and watched as she inhaled. "You miss it?" she asked, reaching over and rolling up the teen's blazer sleeve.

Staring down at the jagged marks with the fresh feeling of smoke in her lungs, the brown eyed girl sighed. "Kind of, but Jordan took all of my razors."

"I thought she had her own."

"No," she pouted. "She threw both of ours out." That was the second way she had tried to kill herself. Slitting her wrists was right in between trying to drown herself in the bathtub and hang herself with her dad's favorite belt that hung from a hook in his second closet.

That last time she and little Kylie had tried it together, and even though the fifteen year old was scared for her younger sister, she knew that if they were both meant to go then she'd take care of her on the other side.

But they were saved in time.

"I saw that boy that always comes by to stare at you everyday. He was sitting in his car just staring out the window."

Emily didn't even try to hide her smile at the statement, glancing down to her fingers that played before her school skirt. "I didn't see him," she whispered, staring into the eyes of the older girl. "Isn't he cute?"

"Pretty cute," Adrianna laughed. "He goes to that public school two blocks down."

"I want to go to one of those." All the Prentiss children were sent off to separate boarding schools when they were all before the age of ten, but when Emily had her first suicide attempt when she was just about to turn thirteen, both ambassadors decided to bring them all back to Pennsylvania where they'd be able to watch them. "Our school is annoying."

"Because it's all girls?"

Emily let her lips purse as she shook her head. "No, I don't mind that. I know you definitely don't mind that," she laughed heartily, remembering the time the eldest teenager in her family got caught having sex with another girl in the locker room by all of the junior class. "It's just that everything is always the same, and it gets boring."

Adrianna blew out a huge puff of smoke and nodded. "You should find a way to talk to him."

"I talked to him once," the younger girl rebuttled. "He delivered our paper and I asked if he went to our school."

"And what happened when he said no?"

Emily shrugged. "I continued to read my book."

"Yeah," the seventeen year old laughed. "That's the problem."

The younger girl rolled onto her side and curled into Adrianna's warm hold, letting her arm wrap around her chilling body as she nuzzled against her warm neck. "I'll find a way," she yawned. "He's really cute, I bet he's nice."

"Maybe too nice to be in this family."

Emily smiled into her sister's skin. "Funny."


	3. Chapter 3

"Emily."

The fifteen year old hid her smile at her youngest sister's singing coming from the other side of the room. "What is it, Kylie?" she chuckled, wrapping another piece of her dark hair around her curling iron.

Spinning around in her spot by the window, the youngest Prentiss girl grinned to Emily. "That boy is here."

Emily frowned, letting her midnight hair fall from the hot iron in her hand before scrunching it in her palm. "What boy?" If a boy came within the perimeters of the Prentiss mansion, her parents would have security kick him out so fast that he wouldn't be able to think of his own name.

"That one that always comes by before school! He's talking to Camille."

The blushing girl flicked off her curling iron as fast as she could before jumping out of her chair, running over to her bedroom window and kneeling down. Her arms crossed themselves on the warm wooden windowsill as she stared outside, watching as her two older sisters leaned against their front gate to speak to the familiar boy and his friend. "Why is he here?"

"Who cares?" Kylie laughed. "Go outside and talk to him!"

"He could be here to talk to Ri or Camille," she insisted. He couldn't possibly be here to talk to her.

The look coming from her younger sister couldn't be anymore harsh. "You're so stupid."

Emily stuck her tongue out at the now laughing teen before running out of the room, her feet quick down the stairs as she heard the other two Prentiss girls following her lead. "What do I say?"

"Just don't be stupid!"

The alabaster skinned teen let out a huff at the sound of Jordan's voice. "Well I wouldn't try to."

Jordan quickly nodded her head. "You just can't help it sometimes."

Once they were out in view of the sunlight, the eldest of the three elbowed the fourteen year old hard in the stomach. "Shut up!"

"Emily!" Adrianna grinned at her little sister from the gate, leaning back against the warming metal. "Someone came to see you."

The fifteen year old's eyes widened at the shyly smiling boy standing behind the iron gates. She gave a small wave, her lips curling at the corners when he raised his hand in return.

"Go already!"

Emily gasped as she was nudged forward by the youngest of the family before being pulled all the way across the lawn, her still developing body jerking to a stop just before the older boy. "Hi."

"Hi," he smiled. He was gorgeous. "Emily Prentiss, right?"

"Yeah, hi."

He glanced down to see the angry red marks strewn all across the girl's forearm before connecting their eyes once more. "I'm Aaron, I go to Anthony Marks High down the street."

Emily smiled up to the older teen. "I know, you were our paperboy for a while."

"Yeah," he laughed.

Moving forward from his spot behind the older boy, Derek stuck his hand through the gate. "Hi Emily, I'm Derek."

"Hi," she smiled, shaking his hand as firmly as she could. From her last cutting session in the bathroom not a week ago, she had given herself two brand new deep cups, and it was still painful to move her wrists. "It's nice to meet you."

"Aaron has told me a lot about you."

Seeing the immediate shock run across the fifteen year old's features, Aaron quickly held up his hands and shook his head. "No I haven't."

Jordan smirked from her spot with her three other sisters just a few feet away from the gate. "Wouldn't have a lot to say now, would you?"

Emily glared back at the other Prentiss girl before looking back up to the older boy. "So what are you doing here?"

"Derek and I are going out with a couple of our friends and we wanted to know if you wanted to come with."

Emily's eyes widened. "Really?"

Aaron coughed into his elbow to buy him some time on what to say next, his head nodding. "Well all of you guys, yeah." It would be way too embarrassing to only ask Emily out when he knew she wouldn't feel comfortable without the other girls in company with her.

"We'd have to ask our parents," she stated unsurely, her hands wringing before her stomach.

Kylie slouched from her spot between two of her sisters. "We never go anywhere."

The eldest of the group took a few steps forward and slapped at the middle child's back. "Or?"

Sharing a look with the older girl, Emily bit her lip. "Or we could just go?"

Aaron smiled at the small glint of happiness in the ambassadors' daughter's eyes when she and her sisters started laughing, and he stepped back to let them out of the gate. "Cool, let's go." He opened the door for the girls, hoping into the front seat with a hesitant Emily by his side. "It's not state of the art or anything, but it's safe."

The ebony haired girl clicked her seatbelt into place before looking to the older boy. "I'm all set," she nodded quickly. Her hand brushed against the seventeen year old's when she moved it too close to the gearshift, and she turned away as she pulled her curled hair back into a ponytail. In a car that wasn't a limo with a boy that wasn't from a family as wealthy as the Kennedy's?

She could get used to that.


	4. Chapter 4

Walking side by side with the boy who had taken her and her sisters from their prison of a home, Emily smiled up to him as gently as she could. "Thank you for inviting us."

Aaron looked down to the shorter girl at his side, watching how she played with the small pendant that hung from her neck. He had driven them to the park just outside town where him and his friends would always go after school, and as their entire group continued to venture through the greenery, he and the middle Prentiss child had begun to lag behind the rest.

They were on their own walk, sharing small words here and there to try and make awkward conversation, the older boy wanting so badly to get to know the damaged teen.

"I saw you and your sisters the other day," the seventeen year old nodded, shoving his hands into his pants pockets. "No one really ever speaks about you guys going beyond your house though, and I thought that you could use another friend."

Emily bit her lip to keep from laughing. "That's very strange."

Aaron grinned down to the brunette. "Yeah, that came out weird didn't it?"

"A little," she smiled.

Continuing to walk around the perimeters of the lake, Emily kept on glancing up to the seventeen year old, catching every time he would look down and try his best not to stare at her exposed wrists. "You can ask about them." She watched as his eyes widened, and she shook her head. "They're not a huge secret or anything, so you can ask if you're curious." She showed her arms as often as she could, but her parents never said one thing. It was like they just didn't care.

Aaron paused. "I don't think I should."

Emily cautiously reached to the side and batted her hand against his. "Ok, well if you're ever wondering then you know you have the option."

Asking the fifteen year old about the reddening cuts that marked up both of her arms when he barely even knew who she was? Not ok.

The teenager had to shake his head at himself. That was a definite lie. He had done his research on the young girl and he knew exactly what she had done in her past; the suicide attempts, the cries for help and the ignorance of her parents who ignored their children as much as possible.

He didn't know how she could still smile the way she did.

"So why do you come here?"

Aaron looked up from the ground when he heard the question, his eyes flickering over to the younger brunette. "What?"

The fifteen year old linked her hands behind her back, two of her fingers playing with the ring she always wore on her left hand, as she looked out onto the glistening water. "Why do you come here all the time?"

Slowing his pace that much more, Aaron felt himself shrug. "My friends and I have just always come here to hang out. There's really no reason for it."

"I think there is," she whispered, watching as a small duck in the water nuzzled against another's neck. "It's really beautiful here: the sun hits the water just perfectly so the ripples look like crystals, and the trees look as magnificent as those in the paintings. You know, the ones that are painted by people no one knows until they're buried?"

Aaron slowed to a stop at the same time as the fifteen year old, his eyes trying to catch hers as she continued to watch the water move.

"You might not know it, but places like this draw people to them. I'm not even sure why they do, because most of the time it's hard to recognize something so beautiful in one moment, but they do." Emily paused, her eyes widening as she connected them with the older boys'. "I'm sorry," she laughed embarrassedly. "I'm babbling."

Aaron smiled smally to the younger girl. "Don't be sorry." Taking out his wallet from his back pocket, the seventeen year old gestured toward the smoothie stand. "Can I get you one?"

The brunette followed her newfound friend across the grass and smiled. "Are you sure you don't mind? I can pay you back later."

"I don't want you to pay me back. This is all on me."

Reaching up to play with the ends of her hair that trickled down from her ponytail, Emily smiled to the vendor. "Can I have a blueberry banana please?"

Aaron watched as the smile on the younger girl's face began to brighten as she watched the man on the other side of the cart began pouring the ingredients into the blender. And then hearing her laugh when a couple blueberries spilled from the plastic, he smiled too.


	5. Chapter 5

"She should give it to him."

Adrianna smirked as she lit up one of her cigarettes, blowing the smoke out the window of the teenage boy's car. They had been just sitting there for hours as the sun went down, Emily and Aaron on the hood of the car where no one could hear their conversation. "Don't force her to do what she doesn't want to."

The second oldest of the Prentiss girl stole the cigarette and took a puff, leaning back against one of Aaron's sleeping friends in the backseat. "I'm just saying," she shrugged. "She's not gonna meet another one."

Jordan turned her head, glaring back at the other girls from her spot in the driver's seat. "Don't be a bitch."

"I'm just saying! What other guy is going to want to talk to a girl who's tried to kill herself more times than we've had a new president?"

JJ looked to the boy at her side, feeling squished against him as Kylie laid down on her sisters' laps. "They don't necessarily like to keep things hidden, do they?"

"Hey," the eldest dark haired girl laughed. "If you want to talk about us, maybe switch it up and do it to our faces."

"Very rarely do we get to interact with the people who've heard rumors about us," Kylie yawned. "Can I hear some things they've said about me?"

JJ looked to the other girls in the car with sadness etched in her light blue eyes. Those girls had gone through things that she couldn't even imagine experiencing, and hearing the dullness behind their spoken words told her everything she needed to know.

Looking up from the soft hand that she had taken in hers, Emily smiled her best smile. "You're going to have a very long life."

"Really?" the seventeen year old chuckled. "How can you tell?"

Emily held the hand up to the older boy's face and shook it, sharing a laugh with the teen from a public school. "Because your palm says so. I told you, I'm very good at reading palms."

"Is there a book or something I can study up on?"

Emily's eyes locked with Aaron's, and she felt his fingers start to curl around hers once their connected hands fell back into her lap. "You want to learn?"

The older boy smiled softly to the brunette who he had gotten to smile many times throughout their day together. "If you want to teach me."

She immediately felt herself blush at the comment, and her dark eyes quickly averted from his and looked back to his hand she was holding. "And," she coughed, trying to not let her voice crack. "Your love life looks like it'll have some bumps in the road."

"Really?"

Emily bit her lip. "Did you have a few breakups already?"

Aaron nodded, letting the fifteen year old's fingers trail over his palm. "One."

"Well there's only one break, so the rest should be smooth sailing."

"That is total bullshit," he laughed.

Emily's jaw dropped at the language coming from the cute boy's mouth, giggles escaping her when she saw his cheeks begin to redden. "Excuse me?"

Aaron marveled in the sound of the broken girl's laughter. "When does anything ever go smoothly in life?"

"You're right about that," the younger girl nodded, her voice soft as she stared up to the older boy. Finally letting go of the hand that had grown warm as she held it, Emily cleared her throat. "I think we have to go home now."

Watching as a cloud of darkness seemed to wash over that happiness the middle child was just holding, Aaron held his breath. "Sure, I'll drive you all home." He helped her down off the hood, keeping a hold on her hand when she tried to walk around the car. "Do you think I could get your number?"

Emily laughed in spite of herself before running to the open windows of the car and grabbing Camille's eyeliner. "Here," she breathed, taking his arm and scribbling down their home phone number. "We don't have cell phones, so this is the number of the embassy."

The seventeen year old's fingers wrapped around the pencil she shoved into his hand, and his eyes widened when she held out her arm. "What?"

"Write down your address for me."

He hesitated, his knuckles glowing white as his grasp tightened. "I don't want to get your cuts infected," he whispered, concerned about the wounds that stretched across her ivory skin.

Emily's lips curled into something small of a smile before offering him her hand. "Do it here." She leaned back, her feet digging into the graveled ground as she watched his eyes flash to something she immediately found herself envious of.

Contentment.


	6. Chapter 6

"Shut up," the public school boy growled as he threw his sneakers into his bedroom closet, slamming the door closed so the bang resonated throughout his room. "Do you know how you sound?"

Derek rolled his eyes, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend of seven months. "All I was saying wa-"

"All you're doing is digging a deeper hole for yourself." Aaron sat down at his desk and opened up his laptop. "You're shitting on a family and their history which you know nothing about. How can you not feel bad about that?"

"Aaron?" the perky girl smiled as she stole the phone from her boyfriend. "If you want, I'll withhold sex from him as long as he keeps up this dick act."

Rubbing his fingers along his forehead, Aaron nodded. "Thanks Penelope." He hung up his cell phone and let it fall from his hand, the plastic bouncing off the wood and onto the floor.

It had been four days since he and his friends had taken the girls out. Four days since he had spoken with the fifteen year old bombshell, and four days since he had seen her beautiful face.

He had tried to call the Prentiss home the day after they had all gone out, but instead of hearing the chipper voice of a teenage girl on the other end, the eldest of the Prentiss servants came over the line, telling him that none of the children were allowed near the phones until their parents decided when their punishment was up.

Looking up at a knock on the door, the seventeen year old leaned back in his desk chair. "Come in."

Ann Hotchner came walking into her son's room with a jolly grin on her face, sticking out her hand as far as she could reach from the bedroom doorway. "You got a letter!"

Aaron laughed at the singing coming from the woman who raised him, and he stood from his desk. "Thanks mom."

"It's from a girl."

"Ok," he nodded. "Thank you."

The blond woman kept herself planted in between her son and the second floor hallway, smiling wide as her hands wrung together. "Well? Are you going to open it?"

"I was thinking of doing that alone."

Ann blinked.

Aaron watched as his mother's face began to fall, and he gently ushered her out of the room. "Ok bye mom. Love you."

"I just want to see it!"

The brown haired boy quickly shut his door and flipped the lock. Sighing, he fell back onto his bed, his eyes scanning over the return address written in perfect script.

Emily Prentiss.

Aaron was quick to shuffle back toward the head of his bed, sitting himself up against his pillows as he ripped open the paper.

_Dear Aaron, I had a really nice time the other day, I would say yesterday because it's only the day after as I write this, but I know you won't get it until a few days after. I heard our butler George on the phone and I was thinking it was you because he went on to report to my father that a boy had called. Thank you so much for actually inviting us out. My sisters and I never go anywhere, and we all had a lot of fun._

Aaron smiled as he read the continuing lines.

_I had a lot of fun. I actually wanted to know though, if you would want to go to the park again? You were a lot of fun and besides, I still have to pay you back for that smoothie you bought me._

The seventeen year old let out a laugh, actually hearing the smirk in the younger brunette's words as he read them.

_Here's a present for you and your friends. It's not the best one we took but I thought it was the cutest, so it's what you're getting. And maybe call me again next week or just come over. I should be off suspension by then._

_-Emily_

Aaron kept his eyes on the pristine paper before looking back into the envelope, his fingers dipping into it and pulling out a photograph.

All the girls were smiling into the camera, Adrianna and Jordan in the back while the other three sat closer to the camera lens.

Emily's face was the one that popped out to him, her skin glowing as the sun hit it from the open window he saw in the background, and her arm reaching forward. She was obviously the one holding the camera.

She was beautiful.

Tilting his head back at a pounding knock on the door, Aaron's groan found itself growing louder.

"Did you read it?"

"Mom!" he yelled, trying not to laugh. "Go away!"

"I just want to know!"


	7. Chapter 7

"Do you have any fives?."

Jordan glared hard at her younger sister with those famous Prentiss eyes from over the cards in her hand. "We're playing poker, dumbass. Not 'Go Fish'."

The thirteen year old paused before glancing down to the carpet. "Oh," she laughed, throwing one of the chips into the pot. "Ok, I raise."

Smirking at the youngest of the Prentiss clan, Emily flipped through her cards. "Raise."

Hearing a knock at the bedroom door, the girls knew there was no reason to turn around. Their mother would come barging in without being told to.

Elizabeth Prentiss used her mother's handkerchief to turn her eldest daughter's doorknob, her fingers too delicate to touch the shining bronze as she went to enter the room. "Girls, your father and I would like to know what you've been doing for the past hour. We have had George come up to get you numerous times."

"Why didn't you come to get us yourself?"

The mother of five ignored the fifteen year old's comment, lifting her head and holding it high, just as a dignitary would. "I'll ask you all again. What have you been up to?"

Adrianna reached into the center of the circle she and her sisters had formed and took their shared glass into her hand. Her eyes met her mother's as she took a sip. It was vodka instead of water. She knew it and her sisters knew it, and although she said nothing, their mother knew it too. "We're playing poker."

The ambassador did her greatest to hide her snarl. Poker, a devil's game. "Why?"

Camille's lips curled into a smile, sharing it with the rest of the girls before throwing another chip into the pot. "Because the boys couldn't make it to the orgy we had planned."

Elizabeth curled her hand tightly around the door before yanking the handkerchief from it and shoving it back into her blazer's inside pocket. "Be downstairs within the hour, your lunches are getting cold."

Once the coldness of their home had left the room, Emily leaned forward and took the cup from her sister. "She needs a life."

"She needs Jesus."

The fifteen year old laughed loudly at the youngest of the group holding her hands to her heart and pretending to pray.

"So Em, did Aaron ever call you?"

Emily sighed, taking another small sip of the expensive alcohol. "I think that was him last week when I heard George saying that we weren't allowed on the phone, so I wrote him that letter. But I haven't heard anything since."

"Nothing?" the eldest asked.

"No, but I'm not really worried about it. We don't have that much connection to any place outside the house so there's really no way I'd know if he'd contact me or not."

Hours into the night, the brunette girl was running her fingers through her freshly dried hair, smiling at the delicate waves that fell around her shoulders. The night had grown cold and after getting out of the shower, she had slipped on a bra and her favorite gray sweater instead of just a tank top.

*Smack.*

Emily frowned, turning on her vanity chair and looking to her bedroom window that faced out to the front of the house. She stood up and slowly made her way across the room, the hem of her sweater hitting the tops of thighs with each step across the carpeted ground.

*Smack.*

She undid the latch and pushed the window open, leaning over the windowsill just slightly to glance out past the yard. "Aaron?" she whispered, her fingers gripping the pristine wood.

Aaron's head popped up at the voice, his innocent look fading as he smiled.

"What are you doing?" the fifteen year old laughed, her hair falling before her eyes.

"I keep calling but no one other than your butler ever answers." Dropping the rest of the pebbles to the ground, he grinned. "Think you can get down here?"

Emily's teeth raked across her bottom lip, smiling gently to the older boy. "Give me a second," she giggled, closing her window back up and slipping on a pair of jeans before running out of her room. Quickly skidding to a stop before Adrianna's bedroom door, she knocked hard before charging in. "I need shoes."

"What?" The seventeen year old pulled her headphones away from her ears and sat up in her bed. "What for?"

"Heels, I need heels!"

Adrianna huffed before standing from her bed and helping her sister through the pile of shoes at the bottom of her closet. "What the hell is going on?"

"Aaron came to get me and I don't have good shoes. I need shoes."

Grinning at the panicked look on her little sister's face, Adrianna quickly searched through her heels. "You gonna get it in tonight?"

"Just help me with the shoes," Emily glared.


	8. Chapter 8

Aaron kept himself leaned again the front of his car, playing with his cell phone in his hands as he waited for the teenage girl to find a way out of her house. He had taken a risk with just showing up at the mansion that night, but he knew that if he'd called then there would be no way for him to see the beautiful girl.

Looking up at the sound of crunching moving toward him, Aaron smiled. "Hey."

Emily felt herself giggling as she ran down the driveway, giving a small wave back to the security guard at their front door before making it over to the seventeen year old. "Hi," she smiled, flipping her dark hair away from her face.

The older boy felt his face flush when he finally had the other brunette close enough to fully see her. Her sweater was just that much larger than necessary, her jeans skin tight and thick heeled boots strapped around her ankles. Watching as she ran her fingers through her waved hair to get it away from her face, clean of makeup, he gulped.

She wasn't just beautiful, she was sexy.

"You came for me," she whispered, smiling gently to the older boy.

Aaron nodded. "I thought you could use a night out."

The fifteen year old quickly handed the older boy the Polaroid Instant Camera she had gotten for her thirteenth birthday and stepped back five feet, shaking out her hair. "Will you take a picture of me?"

Aaron felt himself smile as he watched Emily fiddle with her sweater. "Why?"

"Memories," she laughed, tilting her head to the side as he finally took the picture.

He handed the camera back off to her once the picture was taken, moving to stand at her side as the developed picture came sliding out of the bottom. "You look adorable," he stated gently, glancing at the photograph that she took between her fingers. Her rosy cheeks and fingers gripping the ends of her sleeves because they were maybe an inch too long? She was extremely cute.

Emily looked up to the older teen, her eyes soft when she heard his voice float through her ears. "Thank you."

Once they were in the public school boy's car, the fifteen year old turned in her seat and looked through the lens of her camera.

"What are you doing?" he laughed, taking a glance at the girl who sat in his passenger seat.

Emily was quick to shake her head. "Eyes on the road!" Concentrating hard on her subject just on the other side of the lens, she snapped a picture. "If you crash us and we die, I'll kill you."

Aaron fought the laughter that wanted to escape him. "How exactly would you do that?"

Hearing the smirk in his voice, Emily's grin grew. "Don't underestimate me, Aaron," she said as powerfully as she could. She snapped a couple more pictures before the car finally stopped, and the fifteen year old hopped out of the car as fast as she could.

The teenage boy could barely step out of the car and onto the ground before he felt a hand wrap around his and tug.

"Come on," she giggled, running as fast as she could with her new friend on her hand.

Not giving it a second thought, Aaron ran with the younger girl. He wanted her to be happy, and being with her the few times he had been, he felt himself become happier too.

His hand grasped hers tightly as they ran, and when he saw the destination he knew she wanted them to go to, he swung her into his arms and ran even faster with her glued to his chest.

"Aaron!" Emily's laugh echoed through the empty park as she was carried all the way over to the small lake, her cheeks starting to hurt from smiling for as long as she did. "Put me down," she cackled, holding onto his arms when he finally set her to the ground. "You think you're funny," she accused.

"I do my best."

The chocolate eyed girl shared his smile before snapping another picture.

Aaron blinked, confusion rushing through him when he saw the younger girl throw the newly developed photograph into the rippling water. "What are you doing?"

Emily kept her eyes on the photo, watching as it floated delicately amongst the dark blue liquid and fallen leaves. "Well we can't keep all of them," she shrugged. "They're not just memories for us, but for others who come to the places we have, you know? So we have to leave pictures for them to know how much fun it's possible to have here."

He slowly sat himself down on the cold grass, the tips of his shoes dipping carelessly into the water as he waited for her to sit by his side. "Want to take more?"

"Stupid question."

The seventeen year old laughed heartily at the girl's carefree smile, and he quickly leaned in with his shoulder touching hers so they could take a couple more pictures.

Leaning away from the older boy once they photographs were developing just by her side, Emily looked up to him. "So are you ever gonna ask any questions about it?"

He heard the husky sincerity in that melodic voice she held, and his eyes hesitantly hit hers. "Ask about what?"

"You're wondering," she whispered, "why I'd try and kill myself. I get it, a lot of people want to know why." Emily bit her lip, staring deeply into the school boy's eyes. "I want your opinion."

The fifteen year old had been one hundred percent honest with him for the few days they had known each other, and if Aaron wanted the beautiful girl to like him as much as he was starting to like her, he needed to tell the truth. "I don't believe on giving up," he admitted.

Emily nodded at hearing the soft voice of the older boy. "But it's not giving up," she smiled wistfully. "It's starting a new beginning from the other side."

Hearing the almost love in his friend's voice, Aaron couldn't bring himself to argue.

"Now," she giggled. "Which do you like better?"

Aaron leaned into the younger brunette to see the pictures they had taken, his eyes raked over their faces in both of them. In one picture they were smiling with their faces so close together, they looked like a true couple, and in the other, both of them were making silly faces. And he had to pick? "I don't know."

"No, you have to pick."

"Why?" he laughed.

Emily gripped both photographs tighter in her hands. "Whichever one you like better, we're leaving it here just like the other one. Remember? If others see the fun we've had here, then they'll have fun too."

"Ok," the older boy nodded. Honesty it was. "That one."

Smiling wide, Emily linked her arm with the public school boy's and let the goofy picture float into the water with the leaves and cherry blossoms.


	9. Chapter 9

Leaning back against the older boy's strong muscles, Emily smiled. "Blue."

"Red," the public school boy argued.

"Bananas."

"Strawberries."

"Pizza."

"Steak."

"Orange."

Aaron frowned, staring harder into the dark sky and listening to the gentle breathing of the rich girl. "We went back to colors?"

Emily did her best to hide her laugh at confusion in her friend's voice, and she shook her head. "No, back to fruit. I like fruit," she grinned.

The older brunette smiled at the tone in her voice. Little things could make Emily smile from ear to ear, and it made him happy to hear that smile in her voice. With all the sadness she dealt with in her short life, she somehow managed to break into that innocence only a child would have. "Ok, back to fruit."

Grunting, Emily moved from her spot and laid back on the grass. "Lay with me?"

Aaron nodded his head and found himself lying beside the fifteen year old on the grass, their bodies pointing in opposite directions with his head just next to hers. "Do you like looking at the stars?"

"Sometimes. My nono died a few years ago and on his birthday, my sisters and I all go out to the pool and lie on those floating things that our mom doesn't know we have," she giggled. "And we look up to the stars, telling him about the best parts of that year."

He reached up to tap at her shoulder, and when she immediately put her arm up and took his hand, lying them between their resting heads, he knew that they had formed a connection. "Were you close to him?"

Emily's eyes slowly began to glaze at the clouds moving slowly above their heads, the stars shining and peeking out every other second to say hello. "Closer than I was with my own sisters sometimes," the brunette admitted. "My mother didn't like us calling him nono and she wanted us to call him grandfather instead. It was more dignified or something," she huffed out, moving their intertwined hands lower so she could bump her head against his. "But he was my nono."

Aaron turned his head just enough to eye the beautiful girl's profile. "How did he die?"

"Suicide."

The seventeen year old held the camera that his friend had received for her thirteenth birthday tighter in his free hand when he heard the answer. He should have guessed that the passed Prentiss would have done something like that. "So you're still very close then."

Emily bit down hard into her bottom lip. "I guess so," she whispered. "There are a lot of reasons I want to die, but none of them are actual because I want to die. You know?"

"Yeah, that makes sense."

Emily sat herself up on the grass, her hand still connected with the older boy's as she looked to him with her midnight eyes. "Thank you for taking me out." Her smiled widened when his eyes moved up to meet hers. "I saw your watch, it's three in the morning. Do you need to get home?"

Aaron ran his thumb along the ragged skin of the younger girl's wrist. "No."

"I have a question."

He nodded his head. "Ok."

Emily bent her head lower, dark tendrils of hair falling and brushing over the seventeen year old's face. "Do you like me?"

Letting the chocolate eyed teen run her fingers through the hair just above his forehead, Aaron tightened his hand around hers. "Yes."

Emily smiled, her lips curling upward in the corners just slightly before she leaned in and pressed them against his. She giggled, feeling him smile into their kiss before she saw a flash from behind her closed lids. "What was that?"

Aaron held up the camera before pulling her back down to him. "Memories."


	10. Chapter 10

"So did you two have sex?"

Disgust written all over the fifteen year old's ivory features, Emily turned to face her sister. "No. Why? You fantasizing about it?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Jordan grinned to her older sister, nudging at her with her shoulder. "Your guy is hot."

Emily couldn't fight the grin spreading across her face at the words. Peeling the skin of her orange away and throwing it to her plate, Emily nodded. "Yes he is." Looking up at the sound of footsteps coming into the kitchen, the teenager bit her lip. "Good morning mother."

The Ambassador paused for only a moment to look at her two daughter's before continuing over to the other end of the kitchen. "Girls."

Jordan rolled her eyes as she watched her mother told the maid who was dusting one of their antiques to get her a glass of brandy. "A little early for scotch, isn't it?"

"No darling, I don't believe it is."

Sharing a smile with her older sister, Jordan leaned her elbows on the shining granite. "So mom, I have a question."

"Elbows off the counter, Jordan Lynn."

Emily bit her lip and kept her eyes down on the piece of fruit she held, knowing what trouble she'd be in if she were to burst into laughter like she wanted to.

Jordan hopped off her stool and followed her mother around the kitchen, her hands clasped behind her back, mimicking the stance she and her sisters were taught to stand in when they were much younger. "Say if I were interested in a boy. What would you do?"

Straightening her shoulders, the Ambassador continued to sip her brandy.

"Would kissing be acceptable?"

Elizabeth held in her sigh before turning and making her way out of the room.

The fourteen year old ran after the mother of five and didn't even try to hide her laughter. "When's the appropriate age for sex?"

Taking a piece of her orange between her lips, Emily finally looked up. Mornings in the Prentiss household were never fun. Or afternoons. Neither were evenings nor the night time.

The place sucked all the time.

Emily took her fruit from the table and made her way outside, squinting as the sunlight hit her dark eyes before she sat herself down in one of the poolside chairs, looking to her side to see her eldest sister with a drink pressed to her lips. "You look like mom," she chuckled.

"Shove it."

Giggling as she chewed on a piece of orange, Emily shook her head. "What are you drinking anyway?"

"A mojito," the seventeen year old grinned. Glancing to her sister through her designer shades, Adrianna held her drink out to her. "Try some."

Emily traded her fruit for the alcoholic drink, her lips wrapping themselves around the straw and sucking.

"Wow," Adrianna nodded, watching as her little sister tried the drink. "If you're anything like that when you're sucking on your boy's cock then your relationship is definitely gonna last."

Feeling repulsed by the words coming from the older brunette's mouth, Emily handed the drink back over to her. "What is it with my sisters and sex? I don't get why it's always on your guys' minds."

"Because it's fun."

Emily's dark eyes flickered to those of her sister, waiting until she finally set her sunglasses at the crown of her head before she spoke. "I don't want to sleep with him. Is that bad?"

Adrianna frowned. "You don't want to sleep with him, or you don't want to sleep with anyone?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "But sex just isn't the first thing I think of when I think of a relationship."

"Good. It shouldn't be."

Emily scoffed, throwing her orange down on the small table between them. "You always make it sound like it should be though! You and all your stories about Maddie or Angie, or that idiot Matt guy who tried to fuck you up the ass."

Adrianna just grinned at the memory.

"See? Do you see what you're doing?"

The seventeen year old sighed before setting down her drink, turning in her chair just enough to face her sister a little better. "Ok I'm sorry, but sex is nice. I like sex. That doesn't mean that it's something that everyone else has to do."

"But it doesn't feel good all the time, right?" She had heard horror stories about the act back in boarding school.

"No it doesn't," Adrianna admitted. "But it can take a while to find out what you like and what you want to do in the situation. For instance," she grinned, running her hands over her tanning body, "if someone nips at my hipbone, I'm totally theirs."

Emily frowned. "Your hipbone? Really?"

"Everyone's different."

Looking up at the sound of the back door opening, the fifteen year old smiled to her favorite maid. "Hi Lisa."

"Emily, there's a boy here," she grinned excitedly.

Emily was quick to jump from her seat, grabbing her shoes from the biggest of their front closets before sprinting out the door. "Get in the car!" she laughed, barely letting him kiss her on the cheek before she pushed him away. "If my parents see you then we're dead."

Aaron got into the driver's seat and locked the doors, glancing into the rearview mirror to see a woman staring out to them from the front door. "Is that your mom?"

"No that's Lisa," she grinned. "She'll cover for us."

Once they were down the road and officially out of sight, Aaron slowed the car down just enough to lean over the gearshift and press a small kiss to the fifteen year old's lips. "Good morning," he smiled.

Emily grinned against his lips. "I have a question."

"Shoot."

The brunette fastened her seat belt and stared intensely at the older teen. "Have you ever had sex?"

Gulping as quietly as he could, Aaron felt himself begin to grow nervous. It was going to be a long day.


	11. Chapter 11

Swinging their clasped hands between them ever so gently, Emily smirked at the older boy. "It's been a few hours, Aaron. You still haven't answered my question."

He had taken a phone call in the car just in time to have an excuse not to answer, and right when they got to what they now thought of as their park, the teenager was quick to grab her hand and do his best to distract her.

He had gotten her another blueberry and banana smoothie that they then shared, took her by the pond and had busied her with a trip to one of the older swing sets that no one went on anymore, and although his main focus was to get hers off of the sex subject, he loved hearing her laugh when he pushed her just a little too high.

But now here they were, walking along the main path with other couples and families passing them and their slow pace.

"You don't have to tell me," she said gently. "I was just wondering."

Aaron felt himself try to take a breath in around the nervousness that was clogging his throat. "No," he finally admitted, his hand clamping around hers. "No I haven't."

The rich girl gave a smile.

"Well not technically."

Emily frowned, stopping their stride along the park's path so she could look fully at the seventeen year old. "Not technically? I thought it was either you did it or you didn't."

"It's really not that big of a deal," the older boy laughed, trying to blow it off and tug on the brunette beauty's hand to pull her along.

Holding out her other hand and pressing it against his strong chest, the fifteen year old shook her head. "Can you explain it to me please?" She watched as he squinted only slightly before leading her down the path, their fingers intertwining as they sat down with only their feet in the sunlight, their backs against a large oak tree. "Is it embarrassing?" Looking up to the older boy, Emily bit her lip. "If you don't want to tell me the whole thing then you don't have to."

Aaron shook his head, staring out to the field where he watched a toddler topple over into his mother's lap. "It's not that embarrassing, it's just that I was with this girl that I really liked and she wanted really badly to give me a handjob."

"Sexy."

The older boy grinned at the tone in his new friend's voice. "Anyway, we were in the boy's locker room and she moved her hand down my pants to touch me, and she barely touched me before I lost my nerve and left."

Emily gave an understanding nod of the head. "I'm sorry."

"You weren't there, it's not your fault," he chuckled.

Working up enough courage, feeling it begin to bubble up in her chest from the bottom of her gut, Emily let go of Aaron's hand and straddled his lap, sitting back just above his knees so hers hit his hips. "Do you masturbate?"

Aaron let out a humorless laugh, his eyes widening. "You ask a lot of questions."

"I tried once," she nodded, trying her best to make him feel a little more comfortable. "But it didn't really do anything."

"You mean...do you mean you didn't...?"

Emily pursed her lips before shaking her head. "No, it's not that I didn't orgasm. I was twelve, and it just didn't do anything for me, you know? It didn't feel the way others said it would."

The seventeen year old's eyes hesitantly connected with those of the rich girl sitting on his lap. "I've heard that that can happen for your first time." He set his hands to her hips, smiling tightly as he watched her straightened hair fall before her shoulders when she leaned closer to him. "So would you ever want to?" Only a few days into their different kind of a friendship and they were already on such intimate subjects.

"Masturbate again?"

Aaron paused. "Have sex."

Letting her teeth scrape delicately over the flesh of her bottom lip, Emily pondered the idea in her mind. "No," she shrugged innocently, her eyes never leaving his and her hands coming up to lie on his shoulders. "No, I don't think so."

"Oh."

The brown eyed girl smiled gently. She didn't mean to tease him, but somehow she knew she was. "Would you want to?"

Aaron looked up into the younger brunette's eyes and felt as if he were being trapped. "Have sex?"

"Yeah. In general," she said quietly. "Or with me."

He couldn't breathe. They had kissed a few times, and now here they were talking about sex. With each other. "I-I wouldn't be opposed to it."

Emily grinned, leaning forward and pressing a gentle kiss to his stiffened lips. "That's sweet." Sitting back on his legs just as she had before, the fifteen year old frowned. "So do you masturbate?"

"Yes."

"Do you like it?"

The older boy watched as a certain darkness, a sensual type of darkness that immediately called out to him, passed through the Prentiss girl's eyes, and he nodded his head. "Yes I do."

Emily felt her tongue begin to dry out at the look he was giving her. "Do you do it a lot?"

"Maybe once a month," he whispered.

Feeling insecurity begin to seep into her bones, Emily glanced down to her arms. "Do you, um," she coughed, embarrassment written all over her face. "Do you think anyone would want to do it with someone who's cut themselves? Or tried to kill themselves?"

Aaron tightened his hold on the younger girl. "I think anyone you choose to do anything with should be honored."

"Really?" She could hear the tears threading into her words.

Doing what he knew would get the beautiful teen out of that mindset, Aaron took both of her arms in his hands.

She giggled, gentle tears springing into her eyes as she felt her heart warm when she felt the touch of his lips against the week old to year old cuts.

"You don't need to do this. For attention, to feel alive. Whatever it is," the seventeen year old paused, looking up from her wounds and staring into those welling eyes with nothing but love, "I'll give it to you."

Emily let out a shaky sigh. "You don't have to do that for me. It's not your job or anything?"

"Hey." Aaron reached up and cupped the ivory girl's blushing cheek in the palm of his hand. "What did I tell you? It's an honor, and I want to give you all I can."

The fifteen year old girl gave a watery smile to the older boy. "You're sweet."

"And you're beautiful."

Emily laughed, leaning forward and setting her forehead against his, her dark ebony hair creating a curtain around them so the sunlight couldn't peek in. "Is this going to be some sort of competition or something?"

Aaron captured her lips in a deep kiss. "Don't try and beat me," he grinned. "I always win."

Her brow arched, and a cocky grin spread over her face. "Game on."


	12. Chapter 12

Emily's dark eyes flickered up from her dinner plate, slipping the fork from between her lips before she licked off the remaining gravy. "Daddy?"

The father of five took a sip of his bourbon, his eyes never leaving his plate. "Are you finished, sweetheart? Do you need me to call Lisa in here to clear your plate?"

"No, I can do it myself," she said softly, standing from her seat as quietly as she could. "But can I talk to you, please?"

"May I speak with you?"

Hearing her mother's correction ringing deafly in her ears, Emily reached into her glass that sit on the table and threw the biggest ice cube across the dining room table. When the older woman looked up to her with darkening eyes, the water from the melting ice cube splashed across her neck and chest, the fifteen year old smiled. "Oh I'm sorry, I guess it slipped from my hand."

Charles Prentiss sighed, standing from his seat. "Emily Rose, enough. I'll come with you if you behave."

"Yes sir," she nodded.

Following the middle child into the kitchen, he nodded to some of the servants cleaning and mulling around in there so they could have some privacy. "What is it, Emily?"

Biting down nervously into her bottom lip, the fifteen year old slowly inched closer to the man who had helped in giving her life. "I wanted to tell you something, and I don't want you to be mad at me or anything. But I don't want to keep anything from you, you know?"

"I'm glad you want to share with me, darling. Tell me what it is."

She sat herself down on one of the barstools they had in the kitchen, and she waited until he was facing her without his drink in his hand, something that never happened, before looking up into those eyes he had given her. "I met a boy."

Charles felt himself pause. "You did?"

"Yes, and he's really sweet and handsome, and even though he goes to a public school he's sixth in his class."

The forty-eight year old man felt himself give a genuine smile at the excitement he saw on his daughter's face. "So you like him?"

Emily fiddled with her fingers on the granite countertop, her dark eyes widening slightly when she felt a rush of nervousness hit her. "Yes I do," she nodded. "And we kissed."

"Oh you did, did you?"

Emily's lips curled into a frown. "Why are you smiling?"

Reaching out to rest his hand on the beautiful teen's damaged arm, Charles sighed. "I'm happy that you're happy, sweetheart."

"Thank you daddy," she whispered, letting him take her hand.

"Is that all you wanted to talk about? You seemed a little more nervous about that than I thought a young girl could be."

The fifteen year old hesitated before clamping down hard onto her father's meaty hand, her knuckles going a stark white. "No, there's something else."

Seeing the worry in her eyes, Charles felt his heart stop. "Oh Emily, are you pregnant?"

"What?" Emily's jaw dropped. "No!"

"Oh thank God," the middle aged man sighed in relief.

Using her free hand, Emily pulled a folded up note out of her bra and showed it to the older man. "I was thinking of doing something, and I wanted to know if you'd let me."

"What is it that you'd want to do?"

She pushed the delicate piece of paper in front of the older man. "Read this," she whispered.

Charles frowned, letting go of his daughter's warm hand so he could pick up the scribbled on paper.

_You need to tell me only once, and forever I will remember. You are who you are, and who you are is what I can easily love._

_Nothing you do will ever make me see you differently because I will always think you are beautiful. Emily Rose Prentiss, you are the most beautiful thing I have ever laid my eyes on._

_Your strongly featured face containing beauty_ I _never thought someone could posses leads me to believe that it is the eighth wonder of the world._

_If you feel as if you're falling, I am here to catch you. If you need a hug, come running into my arms._

_I will always be here for you even if you don't feel strong enough to be there for me._

_You are my Emily, and I don't want you to change._

Watching as her father slowly lowered the paper from his eyes and set it back to the countertop, Emily's tongue swiped over her bottom lip. "That's from Aaron."

"The boy you like," he nodded, grunting as his eyes moved up to hers. "He seems like a sweet fellow. Poetic."

"Yeah," the fifteen year old blushed. Lifting up her chin to look as if she had the confidence she knew she was lacking in that moment, Emily stiffened her features. "Daddy, I want to use the words he wrote me and get a tattoo."

Charles did his best to keep his composure. "You want a tattoo."

Emily excitedly nodded her head, reaching back over to her father and holding on tight to his hand. "I want the part that says 'I am here to catch you' tattooed under my breast in his handwriting, and I'm writing out 'I will always be here for you' for him so he can get it in the same place."

"You both are getting tattoos?"

"Well that's why I'm asking you, I need parental consent because I'm under eighteen."

The father of five looked at his beautiful daughter with worry, seeing a certain type of hope and love in her eyes that he had never seen before. "Emily, a tattoo is something very permanent."

Emily smiled. "That's why I want it, daddy. I want him to be permanently with me."

"How long have you two known each other?"

The fifteen year old's face fell slightly. "A few days."

"And you both are already thinking of this?"

"We have a connection, daddy," she whispered, squeezing his fingers with hers. "Just tell me you'll think about it?"

Charles took a breath before nodding his head, letting the middle child's hand slip away from his as she jumped up to hug him. "I will think about it."

Emily ran into her father's arms, a joyful laugh escaping her before kissing his cheek. "Thank you thank you thank you!"

Watching as she ran from the room, the dignitary slowly smiled. His daughter was happy.


	13. Chapter 13

_Gritting his teeth, Aaron thrust his hips up a little more, letting him slide deeper into the thickening heat of his girlfriend. "Fuck Em," he grunted, letting his face fall into the crook of her sweating neck._

_Emily's chewed off nails scraped down the older boy's back, her hips matching his tempo as she felt him hit just the right spot. "Aaron," she gasped. "Aaron please!"_

_He bit down on her earlobe and listened to her scream. God, he loved that scream. It was millions of times more satisfying than that laugh that would escape her, and the feeling of her cunt clenching around his thick rod had him wanting to stay buried within her forever._

_"Aaron!"_

Blinking rapidly to get the dazed look out from his eyes, the seventeen year old's head spun. "What?"

Emily laughed lightly at the look on the older boy's face, brushing her fingers over his slightly sweating cheek. "Are you ok?" She pressed a gentle kiss to the side of his nose. "You looked a little dazed there."

"Sorry," he coughed, standing up from his seat. "Mr. Prentiss?"

Charles Prentiss held out his hand. "It's nice to meet you, son. My daughter has told me all about you."

After two days of hearing his daughter giggle into the phone for hours on end, and watching her receive another letter that made her look as if she were about to burst into tears, Charles had decided to go along with the one crazy thing that his daughter wanted to do. Never before had she been as happy as she was now, and he wanted to see her go through this change.

Emily wrapped an arm around the older teen's waist and rubbed her free hand along his chest. "Daddy, Aaron wants to major in psychology in college."

"Really?"

The seventeen year old nodded his head, smiling politely to the beautiful girl's father. "Yes sir. I want to become a psychologist."

"Notable profession," the dignitary nodded.

Aaron gestured to his father hanging up his cell phone and shoving it into his back pocket. "Emily, Mr. Prentiss, this is my father Steven Hotchner."

"We know, we met while you were daydreaming," the fifteen year old beauty grinned.

"Right," he glared playfully.

Emily giggled. "He said you never do anything other than stay in your room and study, so this is the perfect opportunity to get you out of your head."

Banging down hard on the counter, the owner of the tattoo shop looked to the four that were loitering around the front entrance. "You guys gonna get somethin' done?"

Only minutes after both parents had signed the consent forms for their children and the prints were drawn onto their perfect skin, Emily was holding tightly onto the public school boy's hand with all her mite. "How long will this take?"

"Only about forty-five minutes or so, maybe an hour. Your tattoo won't take that much ink."

Emily, feeling self conscious in front of her father in only her school uniform skirt and bra, which had been pulled up so the needle could be put to her skin, locked eyes with the boy who had come up with the idea. "We're really doing this."

Aaron leaned forward, pressing a gentle kiss to her nervously quivering lips. "If you want to wait, we can think it over some more."

"No, I want to do this," she smiled. "Aaron?"

"Yes sweetheart?"

The fifteen year old brought Aaron into another kiss and cupped his cheek with her free hand. "I really like you."

Hearing those adored words whispered to him, he looked into the younger girl's heaving lidded eyes and squeezed her hand. "I really like you too."

Emily grinned, hearing the adults begin to chat in the background and get their minds off of the new couple. "Forever?"

"For as long as you'll have me."

Pulling a strangled breath through her open lips, much like she had done in the seventeen year old's fantasy not long before that, Emily grimaced when the needle hit her skin. "Forever."


	14. Chapter 14

They'd hid it for two weeks. Two whole weeks the tattoo wasn't spoken about or shown in the Prentiss household until one day out by the pool, Elizabeth walked outside to yell at her girls once more and saw her fifteen year old in a bikini, the black ink clearly visible underneath the top's material.

Immediately, the mother of five was demanding that she be sent away back to another boarding school, but being reminded of how that had worked out the last time, she was forced to think of something else.

"Why did you do this? Why would you disgrace your body this way? Disgrace us?"

Emily's crossed arms flexed and her eyes hardened on the woman who had given birth to her. "How does a tattoo on _my_ body disgrace you?"

"You are my daughter!"

"Really? I'm your daughter?" The teenager hopped up out of her chair and pointed an accusing finger at the older woman. "When have you ever shown respect for me or asked what I want to do when I get to college, or any of those things that parents do? Dad does his best, but do you? You couldn't care less if I was buried already!"

Charles stiffened from his spot beside the two. "Emily."

Emily's head spun. "Don't tell me I'm wrong, because I'm not. How can anyone defend her?"

"That's enough young lady."

Emily looked squarely into her mother's eyes. "Fuck you. You're not a mother, you're barely fucking human. Do you even know who I am? Who I'm becoming? What any of your daughters like to do or how they feel, or would you rather keep on pulling the family name up in rank?" She glanced down to her chest and smiled, smirking up to the ambassador with evil in her eyes. "I got this because of a boy, you know that?"

Elizabeth stiffened. "A boy did this to you?"

"This writing? It's his, and on his chest he has mine. I've known him for barely three weeks, and he cares about me more than you ever have. Do you know how sad that is?" Throwing her arm out, she shoved it into her mother's line of sight. "The fact that all of these attempts of getting your attention got me nothing but sorrow until him? That's bullshit," she spit out. "That's what's fucking sad, that you have no heart."

Charles stepped up behind his daughter and pressed a comforting hand to her shaking body.

"Emily," her mother practically growled, "your rebellion has gotten out of hand."

Emily found herself laughing, hearing the footsteps of her sisters coming in behind them. "Rebellion? Now, is it really rebellion if my father knew about it?" Before the older woman opened her mouth, Emily stole the dress that she'd tore off beforehand and ran out of the house.

The mother of five huffed before following the young girl out the front door. "Emily where are you going? Come back here now."

"I'm going to Aaron's!"

Elizabeth glared at the angry girl as she watched her walk swiftly through the front gate, her bare feet against the small stones that made up their driveway not even mattering. "You think you're going to stay over a boy's house?"

Emily spun around, her dark hair whipping around with the wind before her eyes. "I'm going to stay with him because he loves me, and I can't say that about you."

She walked ten miles up the street, all the way into a neighborhood her mother wouldn't ever be caught dead in, before she finally found the address that she had been sending letters to for all the time she had known the seventeen year old. Her hand knocked politely on the freshly painted door, her heart beating so rapidly in her chest that she wouldn't have been surprised if it would grow too tired and just stop.

The door opened, a young blond standing before the now sweating teenager. "Hi," he nodded. "You're pretty."

Emily watched as the child blushed, and she slowly nodded her head. "Hello sweetie. Is Aaron here?"

Rounding the corner from his living room to the front door, Aaron's hand clutched tighter around the book he had been reading for school. "Emily?"

Her eyes watered, jaw dropping slightly when he entered her line of sight. "Do you think I can stay here?" came her whispered words, now bloodied fingertips tugging nervously at the hem of her dress. She had nowhere else to go.


	15. Chapter 15

Grabbing a glass from the second cabinet above the counter, Aaron shook his head. His father had immediately said yes to letting the fifteen year old stay in their home while she worked things out with her parents, but the beating that Aaron had taken afterwards from the words of his father about sneaking out of his room and trying to sleep with the Ambassador's daughter on their couch had tired him out.

He quickly filled up the clean glass with water from the kitchen sink before walking into his home's living room, his eyes connecting with those dazed ones of the beautiful girl who sat up on his couch. "You're not sleeping?"

"No," she whispered, bringing her knees up to her chest and letting the blanket she had been given cover her bare skin. "I'm not really that tired."

Aaron smiled, sitting down beside the younger girl. "Liar."

Looking up to the seventeen year old at her side, Emily burst into laughter.

"Do you need something to drink?" His eyes softened on those of the rich girl. "Anything you need to fall asleep, I'll try and do it."

Emily blushed at the look Aaron was giving her. "May I ask you something?"

"You always do."

Seeing the smile on the older boy's face, Emily bit into her bottom lip. "Does your tattoo still hurt?"

Aaron watched as Emily's eyes darkened slightly at the thought of his naked chest, and he slowly shook his head. "No."

"Can I see it?"

The brunette boy didn't even have to think before his shirt was slipped off of him. "It's not red anymore," he smiled, seeing how Emily's fingers gripped the blanket when she saw the words that were printed below his left peck. "I really love having you as a piece of me. I'm not just saying that."

Emily let out a breath, her eyes quickly flickering back up to Aaron's. "I tried it again," she whispered.

Aaron frowned. "Tried what?"

"Masturbating." The ivory teen's lips parted when her maybe boyfriend's eyes widened. "It worked."

Not knowing what to say to the admission by the younger girl, Aaron slowly nodded his head. "Congratulations?"

Emily got onto her knees, the blanket falling from her body to expose the tank top and boxers she had been given and her hands resting before her on the couch. Aaron noticed the position she had gotten into immediately, and his eyes drifted towards her backside, the ample bottom begging for him to come behind it and touch. "Aaron? I thought about you."

The seventeen year old paled. "When y-you were...?"

Emily nodded. "The whole time," she breathed. Leaning just an inch forward, she took him into a kiss, one of her hands coming to rest on his knee and massage him through his sweats.

Threading his fingers through the younger girl's dark hair, Aaron kissed her back even harder.

"Aaron," the brunette sighed, breaking away to let her hot breath brush along his cheek. "Touch me."

Aaron almost immediately pulled back. "What?"

The fifteen year old felt tears stinging at her eyes, her hand reaching forward to take the older boy's in it. "I want you to. Please," she begged, wanting to feel him comfort her from what emptiness she was now feeling, just like he had for her those times before. But now it would be different; intimate. "Don't you want to?"

"Sweetheart," he sighed, quickly moving forward and taking the younger girl into his arms. "You can't doubt that I would love to, but I think we both know that it's not time yet."

Emily leaned back, her watering eyes looking up into his and asking for pity. "But Aaron, I-"

"Aaron?"

The two broke apart, Emily quickly picking the blanket back up and covering her body as Aaron turned in his seat. "Hey bud," he smiled, getting up from the couch and taking his little brother in his arms. "What are you doing up?"

Sean rubbed at his eyes, yawning into the seventeen year old's neck. "I got thirsty."

Watching as the older boy cuddled his brother to his side and took him into the kitchen, her eyes glued on his movements as he set the six year old on the counter so he could get him his drink, Emily's heart slowly thawed. A warming heart, something that she didn't think could happen so quickly after a rejection as big as that.

Maybe she was growing stronger.


	16. Chapter 16

"Do you love me?"

"I love you," he grinned, grabbing onto her hands. "Do you love me?"

Emily smiled as she leaned in and brushed her lips against the older brunette's. "I do love you," she giggled.

Four year after meeting and falling into what their parents had thought of as a silly teenage romance, the couple sat in their apartment just blocks away from the college that they both attended.

Harvard University.

Aaron's first choice had been Yale, one he had gotten a full ride to on account of his father having two jobs to support their four person family, his mother having been disabled from being in a car crash just as he was graduating.

But then Emily had gotten into Harvard, and with the grades he was getting at his school and the recommendation from the dean, he had transferred. He loved the younger girl too much to stay separated from her any longer.

Emily wrapped her arms around the twenty-one year old's neck and pressed a long kiss to his lips. "Four years sober," she smiled.

"Four years in love," the older brunette countered.

"Why do you always try to beat me at this game? It's not fair."

Aaron laughed as his girlfriend hid her face in his neck.

Hearing the buzzer ring throughout their apartment, Emily got herself up off of the twenty-one year old and walked over to their door. "Did you invite Derek up from Florida?"

"No," he frowned. "I didn't ask anyone over."

Emily yanked open their apartment door, making sure to pull extra hard because when it got hot out then the wood would warp, and let her eyes widen. "What are you doing here?" she laughed, jumping into her older sister's arms.

Adrianna grinned into her baby sister's dark hair. "Come on babe, I wanted you to meet my new girl," she laughed, setting down the nineteen year old and grabbing onto the girl's hand who stood behind her. "Em, this is Ashley. Ash, this is baby Emily."

The dark eyed girl glared at her sister, feeling her boyfriend's arms wrap around her waist. "Don't call me a baby when Little Kylie is younger than I am."

"Shut up," she grinned. "Aaron hi, it's nice to see you."

Aaron nodded to the abrasive girl he had dealt with because of his girlfriend for the past four years. "You too, Ri."

Once they were all seated in the small space that they had made their living room, Adrianna leaned back into her girlfriend's hold. "So what's going on with you two? Did you finally do it or did Emily join a convent?"

Emily hardened her gaze. "I hate you."

"Actually no, we haven't done anything."

The nineteen year old got herself comfortable on her boyfriend's lap, her hands lying over his as they clasped over her stomach. "We're living a life of abstinence until marriage."

Adrianna's face turned. "Why?"

"Shut. Up," she growled.

"So because you can't touch each other until you're married, how long have you been engaged?"

Emily's jaw dropped. "We wouldn't get married just so we could have sex, Ri. We actually love each other."

The brunette with her new short hairdo, something to go against her mother once more, gave a smug grin to the younger Prentiss girl. "So how long?"

"Two and a half months," the nineteen year old gushed.

Aaron gently nodded his head, keeping his eyes off of the newcomers into their home and leaning up to kiss the underside of the nineteen year old's chin. "But we're not getting married for at least another year."

"So this disgusting lovefest is going to go on for another twelve months?"

Emily laughed, feeling Aaron's fingers start to play with her diamond ring. "Yeah."

Adrianna grimaced as the couple kissed. "Great."


End file.
